Roma

Hanging out in front of The Colosseum.

There are a bunch of houses and buildings in Rome, and actually all over Italy, that are all sorts of beautiful colors. 

The fortress walls around Vatican City.

Saint Peter's Basilica 

Me, Erin, Mary, Joey, and Will.

The mummy of Amenhotep!

Canopic jars filled with the entrails of mummies. They were placed inside the tombs with the mummy and the Ancient Egyptians believed that when they crossed over to the afterlife, they would have all of their organs with them, as well as some of their worldly possessions. 

The beautiful ceilings by Michelangelo within Saint Peter's.

In this pic, you can see "The Creation of Adam" fresco by Michelangelo, with Adam reaching out and touching the hand of God. It took Michelangelo four years to complete the ceiling paintings in the Sistine Chapel! It's said that he didn't even change clothes because he was so dedicated to the completion of the project and was so fed up by the end, that he just wanted to finish it!

A better picture of The chapel ceiling. 

A spiral staircase leading down from The Vatican Museum.

The courtyard in front of St. Peter's.

Inside The Basilica! It was absolutely huge! It's 730ft.x500ft. and at the maximum height is 452ft.!

The dome.

A better view of the inside!

A restaurant in Rome :)

The Trevi Fountain-it was absolutely magical at night and I went all three nights that we were there and made a wish:) I don't know if you can do that, but I definitely did! It was my favorite place  to go in Rome. 

An old Fiat :)

The Pantheon-it was originally built to worship the seven deities of the seven planets (when Rome had a polytheistic religion), but since the 7th century, has been used as a place of Christian worship.

We went out for pizza all the time, but this has to have been THE MOST AMERICAN type of pizza one could have ordered! Cheese pizza with french fries and hot dogs on top! ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS! Who would have thought?

Every morning in Rome, we went to a little cafe called Il Pasticciaccio. It's where our hotel sent us all for breakfast. I had a cappuccino and a croissant filled with nutella-as seen above-for breakfast every morning!

The day we went to The Colosseum, Palatine Hill, and The Roman Forum, it was absolutely beautiful!

The Colosseum!

Inside, the floor is gone now, so the maze-like walls in at the very bottom would have been covered, and they were like "Gladiator locker rooms" and rooms where they kept the lions and such.

Some colorful houses peeking behind The Colosseum walls.

A view of Palatine Hill from The Colosseum.

Palatine Hill in the distance. Palatine Hill fits into the legend of Romulus and Remus. Legend has it that Romulus and Remus were found in a cave upon Palatine Hill and kept alive by a she-wolf. As they grew older, Romulus killed Remus and that's where the city name of Rome comes from.

A "gladiator" outside of The Colosseum-apparently, they try to steal your stuff :) Get a real job! 

Flowers springing up on Palatine Hill :)

A staircase overgrown by grass. 

The remains of the Emperor Domitian's Palace Stadium on Palatine Hill; it is unknown whether it was a stadium for exercising horses, or whether it was a botanical garden. 

A worker restoring part of the wall in the stadium.

A church entrance to the back of the Roman Forum.

The tops of columns have collapses over the centuries, and have been left to preserve the history of the site.

The Roman Forum is the site of the ancient city center and government buildings. It was the nucleus of life in ancient Rome; where public speeches, elections, and trials occured.

A view of the city.

Vittorio Emanuele II monument, it holds the remains of the unknown soldier from WWI.

A quintessential Italian bistro we ate at.

The sea of umbrellas we encountered while walking out of The Pantheon-which actually has a hole in the center!

The Spanish Steps-they were named because the Spanish Embassy to the Holy See is located in the piazza close by. The English poet, John Keats, lived just at the base of the steps.

The Discobolus replica statue in the Museo Nazionale Romano. The original was by the sculptor Myron.